The Memory Box
by anon33125
Summary: After the war, Kakashi opens a box given to him by the Fourth Hokage long before his death. It ends up taking him and the reunited Team 7 on a journey of Yondaime's memories of Kakashi's childhood. All characters owned by Kishimoto
1. Chapter 1

This fic was actually inspired by a Yondaime X Kakashi video on youtube (even though it's not really related to the fic much…. The song was just perfect). Anyway, it's called Yondaime X Kakashi - Dreams Last and it's by VildeChan, if you're interested.

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_It was a cool, brisk day after the war. Hidden villages were being rebuilt as shinobi from all villages were recuperating in a time of relaxing peace. Hatake Kakashi was reveling in the fact that his genin team was once again back together. Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto. The two teenage boys were bickering about something and the kunoichi wasn't above hitting either unconscious yet she wasn't succumbing to their low level 'fight.' He smiled as they walked through their destroyed village. There had been a small box to make it out of the wreck relatively unharmed. It was an important box to the silver-haired man; it had been given to him many years ago by his beloved sensei (who had in fact been brought back from the dead to help fight with them, but that was beside the point). _

_ He hadn't opened the box since before the Fourth Hokage's death, but for some reason, he felt that now was the right time. He called his students over to him. _

_ "Now that you have all met the Fourth, however briefly, I want to share some of my memories of him with you. This box contains mementos of time that we spent together, I think that you, Naruto, will find it most interesting." He gave them all a smile as they looked excited to be let in to their mysterious sensei's past. _

_ Kakashi opened the box slowly, but hesitated. Something was not quite right. It was empty, there was nothing inside. Then all four shinobi were thrust into darkness. _

"What is this, Kakashi-sensei?" Naruto shouted as they finally came to their senses again. "I thought we were done with all of this crazy perverted stuff!"

"I don't know," he murmured, "really, this box was filled with kunai, notes, and pictures. Unless…." He trailed off as they recognized their surroundings. The trees of the village, a gentle breeze, leaves on the trees barely beginning to change colors.

"Unless?" Sakura prompted.

"Unless the box was tied directly to the Fourth Hokage's memories and we are now being forced to relive them." Sasuke said bluntly, not needing to look to Kakashi for confirmation.

"Is that even possible?" asked Naruto, slightly awed and slightly mad that Sasuke seemed to understand what was going on while he didn't.

"Yes," Kakashi sighed, "if he had tied the box directly to his memories of me, then after his death, the box would serve as a vial to contain them and keep them safe for the intended viewer. Which would be me, since he did give me the box." He sighed again, _of course Minato-sensei would leave me a mess like this. _

"So, what do we do?" Sakura wondered aloud.

"We sit back and follow the memories," replied Kakashi. "There's no way to stop them and they won't hurt us." _Physically at least, emotionally I'm probably going to be at a loss. _

"Are you sure you're alright with us seeing so much of your past, Kakashi?" Sasuke commented wryly.

"I guess there's no stopping it now," the Copy Nin glanced up as he could make out three figures now moving rapidly through the trees that had come into view around them.

They were a three man team, though if you looked close enough, you could see that there were really only two men and the third looked barely old enough to be considered a teenager. The first man to come into the memory-travelers' view had long grey hair, barely tame enough to be pulled back into a ponytail, deep-set charcoal gray eyes, and a sturdy yet thin body structure with heavy-set shoulders. The second man looked much thicker than the first due to his clothing as well as an abundant mass of white hair, but he was also in obviously good physical shape. He had thick red lines tracing from the outer corner of each eye to a few inches lower. The last, small, slight figure was absurdly blond with bright blue eyes and a certain light grace about his movements that his companions could never match.

_"Ero-sennin," breathed Naruto, as the second figure had come into view. _

_ "The first one," Sakura whispered, "is he…?"_

_ "My father," Kakashi confirmed. _

_ "That leaves the last one to be a young Namikaze Minato," Sasuke contributed. _

"Ah, Sakumo-san, where are you going?! We have to report to Hokage-sama immediately," Minato gasped trying to catch up to the silver-haired nin. A hand clapped onto his shoulder.

"Our mission has changed, Minato-kun. We are to escort Sakumo to his home first. Saurtobi-sensei understands our need to watch out for him while his guard is down," Jiraiya said gently, but careful to keep his eyes on the White Fang, not his student.

"Hai, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato sighed, confused but willing to go along with this for now.

As they neared the bustling of the village, Sakumo took a sharp turn to more a secluded clan area. A signpost bearing the clan name HATAKE rose from the ground as a small house came into view. A pained shriek rose from inside the house, and the three shinobi's pace increased tenfold, despite their obvious exhaustion.

The three all but burst into the house and followed the sound of another pained gasp into a bedroom. On the bed there was a dark-haired woman, delicate face contorted with pain, bending over her was a young medic-nin with two long blond pigtails and a purple diamond on her forehead. There was a small table that had tall sides and was obviously filled with blankets next to the medic-nin. Inside this stack of blankets, you could barely make out a swatch of light-colored hair atop an unmoving, but solid bundle.

"Ahiru-chan! Tsunade-chan! How… Is… What happened?" Sakumo was half shouting and half barely daring to breathe.

The young Tsunade turned to him, wiped the sweat from her forehead with her arm, and gave him a small smile.

"He has only just been born, Ahiru-chan needs you here with her while she recovers a bit more. I will take the baby into the next room to take his vitals."

"He's alive?" Sakumo's question was barely above a whisper now.

"Yes," Tsunade said, though her undertone was grim, "your son is alive. I plan to keep him that way."

"My son…" Sakumo's breath let out in a gasp as Tsunade wheeled the small table into the large bathroom behind, motioning for Jiraiya and Minato to follow her.

Minato still looked beyond confused at the situation he'd suddenly found himself in, but his sensei did not look as though he were about to explain anything, so the young teen closed the door behind him as Tsunade put up a sound barrier between them and the bedroom. She heaved a deep sigh and turned to stare frustrated to the bundle.

"How is he?" murmured Jiraiya, as though he was afraid of the answer. She broke out of her thoughts and turned on the tub to fill with warm water.

"He's alive," she said, "heart beating, fingers wiggling, and lungs breathing."

"Something is wrong though," he glanced into the bundle and winced a little at how gross newborn infants really looked.

"Of course something is wrong! Ahiru has had 3 miscarriages, and 2 babies that didn't live for longer than a month! Her body is being torn apart from the inside out, she will NOT be able to survive another child! I just told them, not even a year ago, that impregnating her again was NOT an option!" Tsunade slammed her fist on the edge of the sink. Jiraiya and Minato both winced and looked at the door, hoping the sound barrier jutsu held.

"They're still young, how could they have lost so many children?" Minato wondered aloud after a moment. Jiraiya frowned and figured he should probably fill his student in on the situation since he was, unfortunately, now involved.

"Sakumo-san is the last of the Konoha branch of the Hatake clan. Every country has at least one branch of the Hatake clan to their roster, it was a part of the peace treaty which arose when the First Shinobi War ended. The Hatakes were a large, vital, powerful clan, so their splitting among the countries seemed a good way to share the wealth, so to speak. The clan head had actually been the one to offer it." He paused for a moment as Minato nodded, he had heard of Hatakes from other countries. Sakumo-san was considered one of the greatest, so it was his name that most recognized. "As the last Hatake of Konoha, the elders have put a great deal of pressure on him and Ahiru to have at least one child, preferably a son, to carry out the Hatake name and place in the treaty." Minato nodded again. Each clan was very important to Konoha, with Sakumo-san as vital to the village as he was, there was really no surprise that the elders wanted to be positive his genes were carried on.

"It's awful though, if this is what has led to Ahiru-san being so ill," Minato murmured, more to himself than the other two. Jiraiya nodded solemnly.

"Unofrtunately, I think Sakumo-san wants this child even more than the elders do. Even if it means risking his marriage. I can't imagine him just using his wife though –"

"Oh this will most definitely be their last child, I removed her uterus as soon as he was out," Tsunade interrupted smugly. "There really was no other option." The two males just watched her blankly.

She apparently deemed the tub full enough to her liking, and unwrapped the little, barely moving bundle. She cooed gently at the tiny baby in her arms as she scrubbed him clean with the warm water.

"He's so tiny," Minato said in wonder.

"He's quite a bit smaller than average, but he'll grow to be at least as big as his father. Their size at birth doesn't mean much," Tsunade recited as she continued bathing him.

"If he lives," Jiraiya couldn't help but point out.

"He will live," Tsunade countered darkly. "I refuse to let this child die." Conversation stopped as they listened to the soft noises of the baby squeezing water into his tiny fists, Tsunade's gentle cooing, and the baby's gurgled laughs.

Eventually, Tsunade pulled him out, quickly dried him, and re-wrapped his blankets. She had been taking careful measurements of his vitals since he came out into the world and now she was at least satisfied that he wasn't going to die at the drop of a hat. She heard a deep chuckle behind her and turned to glare at Jiraiya. Her glance became playful though as she realized the infant had an unusually strong grip on one of her pig tails, tugging hard on her head as she turned it. She laughed and gently replaced her hair with a finger for him to hold.

"Look at that hair," whispered Minato in awe. The older two looked down at the baby. Now that he was clean and dry, it was clear that he had a shock of thick, bright silver hair, close but not really anything like the dulling grey color of his father's.

The tiny baby was much more lively now that he was clean. One little fist was squeezed around Tsunade's finger while his other (and his little feet) kept rearranging the blankets around him.

"You're going to be quite the little brat, aren't you?" Tsunade sighed as she re-tucked the blankets around him for the third or fourth time since his bath.

"I'm going to bring him in to his parents now, and explain that they are to have NO more children. You two would probably be best to head out this window," she nodded towards the window. Minato nodded eagerly, more than ready to get out of the extremely private life of one of his superiors. Jiraiya was more hesitant.

"Are you sure you don't want us to stick around for a while? Give you some moral support?"

"No, this is something they need to hear from their doctor alone. Also, Jiraiya, I trust Minato, but you? Don't go spreading gossip."

Jiraiya huffed a disgruntled sigh, but still squeezed her shoulder gently before following his student out the window.


	2. Chapter 2

_The travelers let out a collectively held breath as the scene changed rapidly before them. Kakashi hadn't even known the real cause of his mother's illness. All his father had ever told him was that she died when he was a little over a year old due to a long sickness. Naruto was in shock that he watching three people he missed terribly all gathered in the private moments of his sensei's life; it never ceased to amaze him how closely connected the people of the village were to one another. Sakura couldn't believe that Kakashi had been one of the only babies delivered by Tsuande (her master hated delivering babies) and that she had apparently been very involved in Kakashi's early life. Sasuke didn't even have words for what he was feeling, he just took advantage of drinking in every possible bit of information about their secretive, mysterious sensei that he could. _

_ The thing that amazed them all, though, was that they were feeling every one of Minato's emotions right along with him. Almost as clearly as if they could read what he was thinking at times. _

Training field 7 swam into clearer view with Jiraiya standing in front of three young teens. The memory travelers recognized one as Minato a couple years older than he had been in the previous memory. The other two must have been his teammates, a tan-skinned dark haired boy and a girl with a dark ponytail flipped on top of her head.

"Juuna, Tai, Minato! Are you ready to hear your mission?"

"_Our_ mission?" Asked the dark haired boy, Tai.

"Are you ditching us to go peeking _again_, Sensei?" The girl, Juuna, sighed dramatically and rolled her eyes.

"I hope you're more careful this time, Jiraiya-sensei," Minato apprehended, "I don't want to have to patch you up again." Jiraiya had the decency to stutter and blush as he denied that he got hurt while _researching_. The three young shinobi just rolled their eyes.

"Well, what's the mission then?" sighed Tai, it probably wasn't a good one if Jiraiya was sneaking off. They never got exciting missions with their perverted sensei. All the decent ones went to Orochimaru-sensei's team.

Jiraiya gathered energy around him as he tried to excite his placid team.

"You three! Will be guarding! The Hatake Heir!" There was an audible groan from Juuna and Tai, while Minato lectured his teacher.

"You shouldn't keep accepting to babysit kids that you can't be around for!" It wasn't the first time they'd babysat for important children. Both Jiraiya and Tsunade had horrible habits of accepting to watch kids while their parents were away on missions. Tsunade generally kept her promises, albeit bringing a flask with her, but Jiraiya was a different story. He often forgot until the last minute and then decided to assign his now-chuunin team the duty. As genin, the three had accepted it, but now, they were not so easily convinced.

"Come on, Sensei, we can handle more than that stupid kid! He's like 2, couldn't he just go to the academy nursery?" Juuna complained.

"Yeah, isn't that what it's _there_ for?" Tai muttered darkly. Jiraiya laughed nervously.

"Well, he… ah… Kind of… Terrorizes the kids in the nursery," the older man said sheepishly, rubbing the back of his neck. All three chuunins groaned loudly. Jiraiya took that as acceptance of their mission. "Sakumo-san should return in a few days' time!" And with that, their pervy sensei was gone.

"Ugh, damn Jiraiya-sensei! Leaving us with kids again!" Tai yelled, kicking the ground in frustration. Juuna sighed and looked at Minato.

"I guess you know where the Hatake compound is? We definitely don't, but Sensei didn't exactly give us directions," she said.

"Yeah," Minato sighed as well in defeat, "I was there a couple years ago. Let's go and get this over with."

The three bounded away from the training grounds and Minato led them to the HATAKE signpost in the secluded area just outside of town.

The house itself was not much different than the last time Minato had been, but the feeling surrounding it was. There was no sense of urgency, which was nice; but somehow it seemed as if it were cloaked in gray, as if any color around the place had been stamped out. He shivered slightly, but continued the lead of his group to knock on the door.

"Hatake Sakumo-san?" He shouted lightly as his knock went unanswered. He heaved a sigh and pounded a little harder. "Hatake-san?!" His voice got louder, it was possible the man was in back rooms or something. Minato decided it was probably polite to wait a minute before resuming his knocks to give the man a chance to get to the door.

He was about to raise his fist again when the door was pulled open by a seemingly unseen force. The three chuunin looked around uncomfortably as they got a crazy feeling that this place was haunted. Just as they were about to unanimously decide to run for the hills, a tiny, angry child voice crept out to them.

"He left over an hour ago. You're late." The voice belonged to the pipsqueak with a mess of silver hair who was pulling a couple shuriken out of the door that he had apparently attached strings to so he could turn the knob that was too high for his reach. The young shinobi just stood on the doorstep watching him and as turned and walked back to a scroll laid out on the floor.

"Um, WHAT?" Tai turned on Minato. "What the hell is this? He's barely old enough to walk, never mind throwing real sharp shuriken and manipulating chakra strings and reading scrolls and scolding us for being late." He seemed to have genuinely lost his cool. The toddler didn't give any indication that he'd heard what was going on in his doorway.

"Tai, I don't think he's actually 'reading' the scrolls, those are definitely just pictures. The shuriken were dull, they barely left a dent in the door, and he tied strings to them, those weren't chakra strings," Juuna soothed, even though none of that was at all expected from a 2 year old ever. Minato had tuned out his teammates and was looking curiously into the house, remembering the last time he'd been there. That newborn baby had been cute, especially once he was all clean and giggling with rosy cheeks. It was a little unbelievable to think that only two years later, he had an attitude and could throw shuriken. And his father left him home alone enough that it didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. Huh?

Juuna saw the confusion reflected in Minato's eyes. It wasn't the same dumbfoundedness as on Tai's face, it was a more sincere concern about the young kid.

"What's wrong?" she asked, also tuning out Tai.

"Isn't it odd for a kid to not be afraid to be left home alone? I was terrified when my parents left a room, never mind the house to go off on multi-day mission."

She just shrugged, "I used to be too, but all kids are raised different I guess. I'm sure Sakumo-san is called on a lot more often than our parents ever were."

"Yeah, I guess," he murmured, then remembered something else. "Hatake Ahiru died a few months ago, didn't she?" The girl looked confused for a minute, but slowly comprehension dawned in her dark eyes and her lips parted slightly.

"Oh, yes, she must have been his mother. Poor little guy, maybe he really is more scared than he's letting on," she murmured gently, already forgiving the miniature brat for anything he would do to them while they had to babysit.

"Well, anyway," Minato sighed, "we should probably head in, I'm sure he also doesn't appreciate us standing in the doorway gawking at him." Juuna nodded in agreement before clapping her hand over Tai's mouth and hauling him inside too.

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It had felt like hours of the four just sitting and staring at each other. The toddler seemed quite content to sit and stare quietly. This kid was really just getting weirder and weirder, he wasn't like any of the others they had babysat before. In reality, the three chuunin had only been in the house about 5 minutes. Minato realized that apparently it was, yet again, his duty to be the conversation engineer.

"My name is Minato, and these are my teammates Juuna and Tai. What's your name?" He pointed to each of his comrades as he introduced them, then turned his bright blue gaze onto the child when he asked the question. He was actually quite curious what the tiny infant he remembered had been named. He and Jiraiya had left that day before they heard or had opportunity to ask Tsunade.

"Hatake Kakashi," he said, in his tiny voice. The boy still seemed way too small to be two years old, in Minato's mind, but it wasn't like he had oodles of other toddlers to compare him with.

"It's a pleasure to meet you, Kakashi," he said, using his kindest voice and extending his hand formally across the table. A look of surprise and joy flitted across the boy's face as he seemed excited to be treated with such formality, almost like he was a real shinobi!

"So, what sort of things do you like to do, Kakashi?" Juuna asked, trying her hand with the little guy. He shrugged.

"I wish I could read. Mostly I try to teach myself or I aim at targets with Father's old shuriken. There's not much else to do here." His nose scrunched up a little at that. Minato felt a pull at his heart as he noticed the toddler was right. There were no children's toys around, no colorful picture books, not even the plastic little kid's bowls and utensils that would never crack when they fell. In fact, if it weren't for poorly drawn targets around the living room or the fact that the kid was sitting right in front of them, one could have easily assumed the house belonged to an old bachelor too dedicated to his work to marry.

"If you could do anything in the village, what would it be?" He asked, wanting to show this boy something fun. Kakashi looked taken aback at the question.

"I've never really been out in the village. Except for the academy nursery and the cemetery," he said, becoming unsure of what exactly the blond boy was offering. Tai broke his silence.

"You've never been out in the village?! How? We're totally going to take you to get dumplings! There's a stand on the main street which has the best dumplings in the whole world!" Tai jumped up in his excitement to get sweets. Juuna grinned too.

"I'll treat us all!" She exclaimed also excited about the sweets. This mission wouldn't be too bad after all, and she would steal Jiraiya's wallet later to pay herself back. Minato turned to the nervous Kakashi.

"It's all right," he said gently, "sweet dumplings are rolls of sugared dough covered in sprinkles." He smiled, assuming correctly that the boy had never heard of them before.

"Oh-kay," he sighed uncertainly, but he accepted Minato's hand as they walked out of the house.

The group of four had a good time out in the village, teasing one another, and taking care to point out all the great spots to Kakashi after they'd filled up on dumplings for dinner.

"There's the best Laundromat, the old lady gives out lollipops!"

"There are always a bunch of dogs around that house, but they're nice enough. They don't attack."

"If you watch the sunset from up there, you'll be surrounded by lightening bugs within minutes and it feels like your whole world is twinkling!"

"This old lady always forgets who her children are, so she'll give cookies to anyone!"

Kakashi seemed to take everything in stride, but it was a lot of information, and his stomach was starting to hurt from the amount of dumplings he'd eaten. He deemed Minato the most friendly and understanding of the three, and so soon enough, he was tugging on the blond boy's sleeve to bring him home.

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Minato, Tai, and Juuna made themselves comfortable on the living room floor of the Hatake house.

"This is much more comfortable than sleeping on branches," Tai mumbled appreciatively as he snuggled his way further under a thick spare blanket. "I'm kind of glad Jiraiya-sensei dumped this on us."

Juuna couldn't help but nod in agreement. Kakashi was by no means a normal 2 year old, but showing him the village and seeing his incredibly childlike reactions had made her feel much more comfortable with him. This mission could even be fun.

"Don't let him hear you say that, or we'll be lining ourselves up for even more kids," Minato warned playfully. "I'm going to make sure Kakashi is asleep, I'll be right back." He was a little worried about the kid getting a stomachache and he could feel a storm brewing. From what he knew about kids, thunderstorms never really meant well.

He reached the door to the young boy's room and knocked gently, "Kashi-kun?" He said softly, not wanting to wake the boy if he was asleep.

He heard a low moan in response, so he opened the door. The boy was curled into a ball on top of his blankets and hadn't even bothered to change his clothes. Minato swept quickly but not alarmingly into the room and knelt by the bed.

"Does your tummy hurt?" He asked, pushing the boy's unruly bangs back to check his forehead in case of a fever. Kakashi nodded fervently.

"Father doesn't let me eat sweets," he groaned quietly again, but managed a small smile up at Minato. "I guess I know why now." Minato chuckled and ruffled the silver locks.

"I'm going to make you some tea, try to lie flat and relax while I'm gone." He waited until the boy unfurled his body, then went to the kitchen to boil water.

He noted his teammates already asleep on the living room floor as he made his way back to Kakashi with two steaming mugs. That was alright. He felt like he could relate more to Kakashi anyway. Both of his parents had passed away a few years ago, Jiraiya had become a surrogate father-figure to him. Not that Kakashi had lost both his parents, but with one dead and the other an essential elite jounin, the boy was obviously more familiar with being alone than most kids ever would be. Perhaps he could be like a surrogate father-figure to this boy. That idea warmed his heart a little as he looked at the stretched out tiny body and the scrunched up face.

"Here, Kashi-kun, this tea should help settle your stomach," he said and he helped the little boy sit up against his head board. Minato set his own mug on the bedside table and helped Kakashi hold his so that little fingers wouldn't get burned.

After a few sips, there was a deep crash of thunder and the boy jumped a little.

"I thought I could feel a thunderstorm," Minato sighed lightly.

"Me too," mumbled the boy, much more apprehensively than Minato.

"Do they frighten you?" The toddler did not answer, but took another sip of tea. Minato chuckled a little. "They scare me sometimes. Especially when someone I love is on a mission." Kakashi nodded almost imperceptibly.

"Father controls lightening though, he'll be ok," the boy sounded like he was trying to convince himself as well as the teen sitting next to him.

"Of course he will." Minato couldn't resist ruffling the silver hair again, laughing as Kakashi sent him the toddler form of a glare. It would be intimidating in a few years, perhaps, but right now it was one of the cutest things Minato had ever seen.

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The rest of their mission went just as well as the first day. The three shinobi decided to take Kakashi out around the village each day and ate lunch at a different restaurant or food stand. The boy clung tightly to Minato when he would get scared of something or when he felt it was time to go home, but otherwise he seemed truly happy with the three teens escorting him around.

At the end of the third day of their mission (Sakumo-san was expected home later that evening), Kakashi tugged at Minato's sleeve. Minato recognized the signal and gave a yawn.

"I think it's time to head back to the house, troops, I could really," he yawned again, "use a nap." Kakashi giggled at the obvious fakeness of the yawns, but ran along happily to keep pace with the long-legged teens back to his home.

As soon as the HATAKE sign post came into view, they all realized that something was slightly off. Kakashi tilted his head to the side, then took in a deep breath through his nose. The chuunin looked at him questioningly but a huge grin broke out across his face.

"FATHER!" He shouted, breaking into a full-out run to get to the house.

The door opened just as the toddler reached it and he hit the legs of the laughing man standing in the doorway.

"Hey, squirt," the Sakumo said, a smile hinted on his lips and gave his charcoal eyes some glowing warmth. He picked up the tiny kid by the back of his shirt and embraced his son tightly before righting him back on the ground. He looked at the three his son had been walking with and waved them over. "I see Jiraiya ended up being busy after all."

"Hai, Sakumo-san," Minato said, bowing his head.

"It's good to see you again, Minato-kun. What do you think of my genius son now that he can make more sounds than gurgles and giggles?" Sakumo asked, humor lighting his eyes a little more. Kakashi just blushed and kicked at his father's strong legs.

"Haha, he's grown a lot. He'll make a great shinobi someday," Minato aimed this statement at Kakashi more than Sakumo. "These are my teammates, also students of Jiraiya-sensei, Junna and Tai."He motioned at his comrades to change the subject.

"It's an honor to meet you, Hatake-san," they both bowed in respect to one of the greatest shinobi in the world.

"And you both, as well," said Sakumo. "Thank you for taking good care of my son." He smiled down at Kakashi. "Why don't you go take a bath before dinner, I'd like to talk to your friends alone for a minute." The boy huffed a sigh, but nodded and went back into the house. Sakumo waited until he disappeared and then addressed the shinobi in front of him.

"I do appreciate you keeping him safe, but he will have to learn how to do that himself from now on. I told Jiraiya that he was to keep a distant eye on the boy. He won't become a great shinobi if he is babied all the time. I assume Jiraiya did not pass that information on to you." The three shook their heads, quite astonished that the man had actually _intended _to leave his 2 year old son alone for three days. "Well, he will begin training a ninken pack soon, and they will watch over him when necessary. So, if you would please pass a message to Jiraiya that his babysitting assistance will no longer be required, I would appreciate that, too." With that the man clearly dismissed them and they turned to walk in a haze away from the house.

"Leave his kid alone?!" Tai shouted as soon as they were a good distance away. "Is he kidding? I don't care how many ninken there are around, a toddler can NOT be left ALONE! He'd die!"

Minato shook his head, "No, Kakashi is far too important to the village for Sakumo-san to just let him die," he stopped in thought for a moment to try to decipher what all of this meant. "Actually, I think he's training the boy to be invincible. You guys saw how he opened the door for us that first day, he's already got a very active mind. He is capable of taking care of himself, to a degree. Part of being invincible in a shinobi world is being able to take care of yourself no matter what age you are. By ensuring he can do it as a toddler, he will never grow out of it. He will always be able to care for himself and survive, no matter what the circumstances." Minato stopped again, shocked at this revelation.

"So, basically," Juuna supplied hesitantly. "He's ensuring his son a long life of complete loneliness."

"Damn," muttered Tai. Minato and Juuna silently agreed.


	3. Chapter 3

_The travelers felt the truth of Juuna's statement as fully as Minato and Tai had. Sakumo was willing to do anything to ensure his son a long life. Being an elite ninja, the isolation was the most obvious and sure-fire way to accomplish this. As long as Kakashi could live to pass on the Hatake name, those next generations would know the freedom of childhood. The fact that the Third Shinobi War was right around the corner didn't help matters at all. _

_ Many of Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto's questions about their sensei were answered with just that memory of his childhood. Kakashi remained silent, lost in his own past as the scenery changed around them once again. _

"MINATO!" A young woman with flowing red hair was chasing the blond teen who had stolen her bag. Again. "Give it BACK!"

Minato laughed at her frustration and instead just threw one of his special kunai into a tree behind her and used his special flicker technique to catch her off guard. She looked even more fierce at his method of 'giving it back,' but his gentle, laughing blue eyes reduced her counterattack to a simple flick at his nose. Which was actually hard enough to make his eyes tear up.

The two of them had ended up just outside the academy on graduation day. It wasn't exactly coincidence, Minato loved watching the graduation day proceedings, and especially the families cheering as their young children became shinobi. He squeezed the teenage girl's arm gently. They were becoming good friends and he hoped with all his heart that their friendship would continue and maybe turn into something more. Eventually, she was still a little too scary now.

"Come on, Kushina-chan," he murmured, "let's move closer. I want to hear the names of the newbies."

"Are you considering a jounin sensei job now that you're a jounin?" She asked, knowing how much he enjoyed helping out at the academy when he wasn't on missions. He nodded eagerly.

"Of course! It'll probably be a few years before Hokage-sama will give me one though, I don't have quite enough experience," he expanded shyly. He wasn't exactly a new jounin, having received the title a little over a year ago, but with Jiraiya-sensei travelling for research again, he was only sent on missions when the original team was for some reason broken up. He was plenty useful around the village in other ways, it was only his missions from the past year that were lacking.

She punched him affectionately on the shoulder. "Well, another year won't hurt, ya know! We'll just make sure you get loads of solo missions!" She smiled sunnily and he couldn't help but return it.

They settled in to watch the graduation proceedings. Most of the clan names were vaguely familiar to Minato, but it wasn't until a child nearly half the size of the other new genins stepped up that Minato would have fallen from the tree if not for Kushina's grasp on his arm.

"What is it?" She asked, urgently, thinking he had been attacked somehow. He just shook his head mutely and nodded toward the stage where Sandaime was about to announce the next child.

"We now welcome forward the youngest graduate yet from Konoha's ninja academy. He has attended classes for only a year and now graduates with high honors, full recognition." The crowd had turned silent as the slight masked child with wayward silver hair walked onto the stage. "Hatake Kakashi." There was scattered applause, but what he did receive seemed heartfelt. Minato did some quick math in his head.

"Five," he whispered hoarsely. Kushina looked at him questioningly. "The boy, Kakashi, he's only five years old. And now he's a genin."

"Genius son of the White Fang, ya?" She confirmed nodding. "I heard about him, he really must be a genius. The Hokage's son, who's the same age, hasn't even entered the academy yet." She looked at the tiny boy. His hair seemed bigger than the rest of his body. She snickered lightly, but not in a mean way. "He doesn't look like much, does he?"

Minato shot her a look, "He's probably a lot more dangerous than you think. I babysat him once when he was 2 with my genin team. He was quite the handful, and way more advanced than a normal toddler."

"Yah, I believe it. I wasn't putting him down, just saying, ya know, he's quite a little guy. I hope he at least grows a little before attempting the chuunin exams." She was still smiling good-naturedly, so Minato decided it wasn't worth fussing about. Kakashi wasn't _his _son, after all. Not _his_ responsibility. He had enough on his plate without worries about that child coming back to haunt him. He briefly remembered all the inner-self battles he'd had about trying to 'rescue' Kakashi from his father. But, it was obvious the man loved his son very greatly, and, in the end, he got caught up in his own life and Tai's death to put much more thought into it than that. He sighed thinking about his lost friend again, he missed his loud mouth teammate; he decided he would find a way to visit Juuna after the ceremony.

Kushina touched his shoulder again, "You alright, Minato-kun?"

"Hai," he replied softly, "just thinking about the past. I'm back now, let's go get some ramen!"

"HAI!" She exclaimed, practically dragging him out of the tree in her excitement for food.

Not too long after they'd gorged themselves at a ramen stand, Minato saw one of the Hokage's messenger birds heading for them.

"Look at that! A mission for you already, Minato-kun!" She elbowed him playfully. He smiled back at her.

"Perfect timing," he said happily.

"Be careful, ya know," she said softly, and they parted with a hug before he teleported directly to the Hokage Tower. He nodded respectfully to the ANBU at the door before knocking to alert the Hokage of his presence. As soon as his fist connected with wood, he heard Sandaime's voice.

"Come in please, Minato." He entered to find a stack of papers and a slightly frustrated hokage.

"Is everything alright, Hokage-sama?" He asked.

"This is actually why I called you here. We've been having a bit of a problem arranging the genin teams. No matter how we split them between senseis, there is an odd one out. Not to mention our youngster who doesn't get along well with really any of his fellow peers." The Hokage stopped, chuckled a little, and sighed.

"You want my help sorting genin teams?" Minato asked, confused.

"Actually, no, I want you to take a special role." Minato raised an eyebrow, causing the Holage to chuckle again. "You have expressed interest in becoming a jounin sensei, but you are still young and lack some practical experience. So, I have come up with a solution. I would like you to take Kakashi-kun as your single apprentice for a few years, until his own age group has caught up to his level. Then, I will assign two of those classmates to join your team. He will assist the chuunin senseis at the academy whenever I assign you to missions so that he will still remain with those close to his age. But, he will train with you as he is clearly beyond academy level now and we can't waste such valuable talent. What do you say?" He asked, after watching Minato's face go through several different emotions. Finally he settled on one.

"I would be honored and delighted to take on such a role, Hakage-sama," he said, bowing deeply. In truth he was terrified. Should a five year old genin be treated like a shinobi or a child? How much could he really handle? Would he be resentful of not getting assigned a team? What if the kid didn't remember him? What if he did? So many questions, but he remained stoic as the Hokage thanked and dismissed him, telling him to show up at the academy at the same time as the other jounin sensei the following day.

Minato spent the rest of the day wandering Konoha, wishing Jiraiya were back in town. He flitted in and out of shops, not wanting to buy anything, but not wanting to look out of place on the streets. He wasn't actually sure how the rest of the day passed, but it did, somehow. And the night also passed by astonishingly quickly.

He was right on time as the other jounin sensei gathered outside the academy joking and laughing with one another. They greeted Minato without much thought before they realized he was passing by them. The teen jounin was joining them.

"Ah, Minato-kun?" One of them asked, rather loudly and soon everyone was listening. Minato blushed.

"Yes?" He responded, determined to keep his cool.

"What are you doing here?"

"I've… ah… come to meet my student." There was a collective laugh of disbelief. They obviously thought he was joking. They didn't yell at him or make him leave though, they just sarcastically clapped his shoulder. There was no way the Hokage would make a mere 17 year old a jounin sensei, but they enjoyed the kid's joke.

Eventually, the door opened and the chuunin sensei of the graduating class invited the jounin into the classroom. Some were still snickering as Minato stood among them at the front of the room. Minato couldn't help but glance around for Kakashi as soon as he'd entered. He found the boy rather quickly, seated at the far back corner with no one occupying the seats directly next to or in front of him. Minato frowned slightly, but otherwise made no indication towards his soon-to-be student.

The introductions were quick, nothing more than the names of the senseis were mentioned.

"Our first team assignment is actually going to be a very special one," the chuunin sensei started once the introductions were over. "We all know that we've only had Kakashi for a short time, but he is very skilled. Kakashi-kun?" She gestured for him to stand, he did so reluctantly grabbing his small bag as well. "You will be going with Minato-sensei alone. You will be his sole apprentice for now." All the students' eyes followed Kakashi and all the jounins' eyes were trained on the not-joking Minato.

Minato raised two fingers in greeting to Kakashi; the young boy ignored him and simply walked from the room. Well, that could have been worse. It also wasn't exactly the best idea to single out the two oddities first, but at least it had gotten them out of there faster. Minato hurried to catch Kakashi at the end of the hall.

"Sorry, Sensei," he said as they closed the doors of the academy behind them. "I really don't like that building." Minato chuckled.

"No problem, Kakashi. I'm not really a fan of it either. Nor of the number of eyes we had on us," he shivered slightly exaggeratedly. He could see the hint of a smile under the child's mask.

"So, what do we do now, Sensei?"

"I'm not exactly sure," Minato ducked his head, rubbing nervously at the back of his neck. "I haven't had much time to plan. Perhaps we ought to start with introductions? Maybe some ramen and get to know each other a bit?"

The boy looked a little apprehensive at that, but eventually said "yeah, alright."

The two sat quietly at the ramen stand, waiting for their bowls. They hadn't said anything on their walk over. Minato had never felt so nervous in the presence of a mere 5 year old. Finally he decided to break the tension.

"Well, you've grown quite a lot since the last time I saw you," he said, smiling at the boy.

"Huh?" Kakashi raised a questioning eyebrow. "You know me?"

"Oh, I guess you don't remember," he muttered quietly. "Well, you were quite young. I shouldn't be surprised," he broke off seemingly flustered. The boy watched the older teen get muddled with amusement. After a moment, Minato realized the kid was snorting under his mask.

"Hey! You DO remember!" He accused. The boy gave a full out laugh and nodded.

"I still can't stomach sweets, so don't even think about trying dumpling bribes with me," despite his warning tone, there was a sparkle in his dark eyes. Minato couldn't help but grin in response. He was definitely going to have to watch his back around his student.

Their bowls of ramen came shortly after. Minato ate a few bites before turning back to see Kakashi had already finished his whole bowl, mask firmly in place. He swallowed and couldn't understand why the boy hadn't choked.

"Why the mask?" He asked. "Did you get hit?" Kakashi shook his head.

"Nope, just don't want people to see my face is all."

"Why not? You have quite a pretty face, if I remember correctly?" He knew he shouldn't be prying, but it was odd to see someone so young already ashamed enough to want to cover himself, hide himself from the world.

"None of your business." Was the snide reply he got. Yeah, he'd kind of deserved that one. Minato rubbed at the back of his neck again as he finished his own bowl of noodles.

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The young genin and his young jounin sensei eventually fell into a routine. They would train together for 5 out of the 7 days in a week, including weekends. Kakashi would assist chuunin senseis at the academy for two weekdays, while Minato tagged along on 1-2 day missions with experienced jounin. Needless to say, they ended up seeing quite a lot of each other and quickly became comfortable with one another. Kakashi relaxed his mask when eating around his sensei and Minato learned to pick up on Kakashi's quirks as well as his rather scintillating sense of humor (especially when it was directed at someone else). Minato came to see Kakashi as a mix of younger brother, best friend, and at times he even felt a rather fatherly compassion for the boy. Kakashi came to admire Minato in a similar fashion, as a role model, best friend, and even somehow as family.

They had come to know each other well enough that when Kakashi was late to training one morning, Minato was immediately suspicious.

"Is everything alright, Kashi-kun?" He asked after greeting the young genin.

"Hai," he said softly, "just had a late night." A few months ago Minato might have raised his eyebrow at the idea of a 5 year old having a 'late night,' but he knew now that often Kakashi would read until long after the sun disappeared or his father would keep him up with stories equally as long. So, he just nodded at this explanation. He'd question the boy again later, he would be suspicious if questioned again now.

"Well, then, let's begin! I'd like to work on manipulating chakra again. I know you're already quite good at controlling it, but I want to be able to teach you my rasengan one day." He smiled proudly.

"_You_ can't even do your rasengan perfectly yet, Sensei, how am I supposed to learn it?" The boy was complaining out loud, but Minato was quite familiar with the gleam in those charcoal eyes which meant he was ready to beat his sensei to it.

"Alright, let's race to it then!" Minato laughed as he and Kakashi took their normal stances across from each other. He watched Kakashi brow furrow in concentration as he gathered chakra into his hands, a light wisp burst out, and the boy looked satisfied with his progress before grabbing a balloon from one of Minato's bags.

After a couple hours of working with chakra manipulation and teasing each other, Minato had to admit he was exhausted. He had rasengan down as far as the shape manipulation, Jiraiya-sensei would be excited about that, but he just couldn't get the nature manipulation involved. Kakashi had succeeded in popping a few balloons, but he wasn't consistent, especially with his age, he didn't have the stamina to pull it off. Minato glanced at his student and caught the self-frustration in the boy's eyes. If he were a normal five year old, he'd be throwing a temper tantrum. The blond laughed to himself, then walked the few feet it took him to reach Kakashi, and scooped the boy up with one arm.

"Alright, Pipsqueak, enough chakra practice for today. You'll give yourself a hernia. Let's go get some ramen."

"Can't we do sushi or something? You're always 'Ramen, Ramen, Ramen,' well, maybe I want sushi! Or miso! Ooo, miso with eggplant! And some light noodles! Spiced tofu…" The boy was hanging by his waist in the crook of Minato's arm, as his voice trailed off, talking excitedly about much more complex food than simple ramen. He tuned the boy out and decided that maybe today they could go someplace nicer than a ramen stand. He'd gotten a decent paycheck from his last tag-along mission, and he could never really pass up Kakashi when he was being this adorable. Minato laughed at himself, he'd be a truly horrible father if he let himself be manipulated so easily. Good thing he wasn't planning on having kids of his own any time soon. This little squirt was more than enough.

When he stopped them outside of an actual restaurant, Kakashi's jaw dropped.

"Really, Sensei?"

"You want miso with eggplant? Maa, I'm feeling generous today."

"Arigatou!" The small boy jumped away from the arm that had been carrying him and bounded into the restaurant. "Table for two, please!" He requested at the hostess stand. The hostess smiled at him placatingly and raised a perfectly manicured eyebrow, but didn't make any other movement to acknowledge that he was saying anything other than childish nonsense. Minato felt a rush of annoyance at her. Who was she to look at the excited boy like that? He had as much right as anyone to be requesting a table for the two of them.

"Hello, how are you today, Jounin-san?" She smiled more genuinely as Minato appeared. He barely held back from growling at her.

"I believe my student requested us a table." He barely held his voice in check. He hadn't been this annoyed at someone since the kids in his academy class had decided to start picking on Kushina for her bright red hair. Stupid, pointless people just making things difficult.

"Your –?" Her question cut off as Minato's hands closed around Kakashi's tiny waist and lifted him to her height.

"Table for two, please," Kakashi did growl, his young voice taking on an entirely different persona when he was angry. The first time Minato had heard the change, he'd been quite terrified that the kid was insane, but now he knew that Kakashi mostly did it because it was often the only way to grab people's attention. Minato took secret pleasure in watching the hostess's eye widen in horror as she quickly looked through her books and directed them to a table.

"Thanks, Minato-sensei," Kakashi murmured quietly as he took his seat in their booth.

"Mmhmm, no one has any right to treat you like that, Kashi-kun." The boy just nodded solemnly, not as though he really believed it.

"Still looking forward to miso with eggplant?" The jounin waggled his eyebrows at the boy to get him to lighten up again. It worked as the boy giggled, his nod more excited than merely accepting.

"Your favorite food can't really be ramen, can it Sensei?" The little silver-haired boy asked.

"I suppose I make it my favorite food because it's cheapest and one of the few things I can actually cook."

"You can't just make a favorite food. You've got to really like it the best of all. Like miso with eggplant, I can't even imagine anything better! I dream about it sometimes," Kakashi admitted, blushing before he even realized it had come out of his mouth. Minato laughed and reached across the table to ruffle his hair.

"There are so many to choose from though. And you're lucky that sweets are not among your options. I love dumplings and ice cream! I also do love ramen. And miso and sushi. Rice, I could probably do without," Minato scrunched up his nose as he said that, knowing that Kakashi would giggle again (which he did). And the two succumbed to more friendly banter accompanied by childish faces and even tongues sticking out at each other until their food came out.

Kakashi glanced around, making sure there was no one in the nearby booths before taking his mask off and letting it hang loosely around his neck. He pulled apart his chopsticks and went to fishing for his eggplant bits while the broth cooled a little more.

Normally, Minato would have thought nothing of this, pulled apart his own chopsticks and started eating his own meal. This meal was different, he glanced at Kakashi's bare face to see the delight before he dug in to his favorite food and froze. There was a long, dark, fresh bruise spilling across the boy's lower jaw.

"What… happened?" He breathed, reaching out to the boy's face before he could stop himself. Kakashi flinched back and quickly pulled the mask back up.

"Nothing," he murmured, his eyes closing off from dancing charcoal fire to pools of cold ink.

"Kakashi." It was a warning, Minato wanted to know who and what had happened. He was going to stop this. No one messed with his apprentice.

The boy said nothing, but folded his arms and refused to meet his sensei's eyes.

"Was it kids at the academy?"

"Like they could touch me," Kakashi snorted lightly. Ok, no go there.

"Other gennin?" No response.

"A fellow shinobi?" Nothing again.

"Someone you know?" Still nada.

"An adult?" A slight flinch, anyone else would have missed it, Minato didn't.

"Kakashi, please tell me. I just don't want anyone hurting you." His voice softened from interrogation to soothing. Kakashi's head hung forward.

"He didn't mean it. It was an accident," the boy breathed, barely a whisper. "He got drunk again last night, Sensei. I only wanted to help him," his voice, quiet as it was, had broken. A soft choke, and Minato's heart broke with it.

"Sakumo-san," he murmured. The boy curled in on himself and Minato knew he was, unfortunately, right in his guess. Minato moved to sit on the bench next to Kakashi.

"May I look at it, Kashi-kun?" He asked, gently rubbing circles on the small back beside. "I want to make sure it's really ok. I won't take you to the hospital." Slowly the boy nodded and pulled his mask down again.

Minato ran his fingers along the young, delicate jaw, careful not to poke or prod too hard. He traced the line of the bruise all the way down the side of the boy's neck, where it tapered off right at the junction between neck and shoulder. He pulled away, not daring to look at Kakashi's now tear-filled eyes.

"How often?" He asked, finally tilting his face to look right at the boy. Kakashi swallowed.

"Not much," he whispered. Minato's eyes glazed hard as he took that to mean this definitely was not the first time Sakumo had gotten drunk and hit his son (no matter how accidental it probably was, Kakashi did bruise incredibly easily). Kakashi noticed the hardening blue eyes and gasped. "Please don't tell." It was a real plea, almost unbearable. Minato tightened his lips, but nodded.

"Only if you promise me that you will continue to talk to me about it." It wasn't quite blackmail, but he couldn't be kept in the dark about this. He would do everything in his power to protect the boy sitting beside him that had become so incredibly important to him these last several months. Kakashi nodded in agreement, his eyes closed, and a few tears leaking out from under the lids.

Minato moved back to his own seat to give the boy a little space.

"I'd say your miso is cool enough to eat now, Pipsqueak," He said, teasing softly and leaning over the table to give the boy's nose an affectionate tweak. Kakashi's lids flew up and he sent a well-practiced playful glare at his sensei.

"Don't touch my nose," he muttered, still very quiet, but a gleam was creeping back into his eyes, especially as he inhaled his perfectly cooled, delicious broth.


	4. Chapter 4

Just a short, cute chapter. The next one will dive into more of the angsty-ness of Kakashi's childhood, so I decided to lighted it a little with this one. enjoy:)

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_Sakura, Sasuke, and Naruto were frozen in their spots. _

_ "Your father hit you?"_

_ Kakashi just sighed. "I'm sure you'll hear more about it later. Minato-sensei was a very big part of my life then, as you are seeing. Often I would see him more in a given week than I would my father."_

_ The three teens sat in shock as Kakashi offered them a small smile._

_ "I have forgiven him, you know, for everything he did. Minato-sensei only saw the difficult parts of our relationship. I did love my father and I know he loved me as well. There are often times when the village is just more important; he only wanted me to be able to take care of myself because he knew he would be gone often with a war coming. We were very close on his good days." The teens with him were still only managing to stare at their sensei, but a sudden shout from the scene unfolding before them brought their attention back to the memories. _

"BAKA, BAKA, BAKA! Why would you go to that house in the middle of the night?!" Kushina was angry enough that she was barely recognizable, yelling at a slightly cowering blond shinobi.

"I just wanted to be sure Kakashi was alright," Minato sighed for the millionth time. He definitely wasn't going to come to Kushina with inexplicable scratches again. He winced as she wrapped a slightly deeper gash on his arm with a distinct lack of tenderness. He had been stalking the Hatake compound the past couple weeks in order to keep an eye on his young apprentice. After seeing the bruise on the boy's face, he'd been horrified by unjust treatment at home. Thanks to his nighttime escapades though, he had learned to his satisfaction, that Sakumo and Kakashi actually had a very regular father-son relationship; perhaps there was a bit of extra drama and loneliness due to them both being genius shinobi, but Minato had quickly seen that it was balanced with the amount of pure affection Sakumo showed his son.

He'd spent many nights sitting in trees listening to Sakumo regale Kakashi with stories of heroic missions, saving comrades' lives, destroying enemy intel in grandiose explosions, protecting the village in valiant feats, and otherwise epic adventures with his team. Sakumo was an incredible storyteller, who even caught Minato up in his tales. Kakashi, understandably, hung on to every word, and would often recite his father's scenes when the two would train together.

Minato would have thought that the occasional drunken-ness would have made Kakashi less trustworthy of his father, or of people touching him in general, but soon this was also proven untrue. The small boy would fall asleep in his father's arms, and Sakumo would take supreme care not to wake him if he decided to move. Their main form of real communication surprisingly seemed to be through touch. Gentle hair ruffles, squeezing of the shoulder, Sakumo inviting the boy to sit on his lap or squeeze by his side, careful repositioning of hands or feet when training, etc. These were the parts of the relationship that Minato found incredibly heartwarming. As soon as Kakashi would prove himself capable of handling fears or challenges that would otherwise be difficult for such a young child, Sakumo would reward him with stories, training, a new book, or sometimes even just the promise of his undivided attention for a few hours. Some would have seen Sakumo's treatment as harsh, much like he and his teammates had a few years ago, but watching it up close and seeing how dramatically Kakashi progressed as an individual as well as a shinobi, had Minato realizing that there are many things that can't ever really be classified as right or wrong.

Sakumo had only gotten drunk once in the time Minato watched them; he had clapped Kakashi way too hard on the back and the boy fell over. It wasn't a vicious move, but all the same, it had Minato cringe in anger. Kakashi had trained well the next day, albeit a little stiffly, and Minato decided that he would continue watching, promising to himself that he would definitely intervene the next time.

The next time never came; instead, Sakumo being the elite shinobi that he was, caught just a second's glare of Minato's unmasked chakra before realizing their house was being watched. It had been quite a scene as they 'fought,' which mostly consisted of Minato trying to run away unrecognized and Sakumo outsmarting him at every turn (it was late at night and Minato wasn't exactly in his shinobi mindset). The repercussions of Sakumo discovering him were actually what had led to his arm being torn up. The grey-haired elite jounin had insisted that if Minato wanted to spend that much time with his son, he might was well just join in their activities. Of course, Minato accepted and found himself involved in vigorous training sessions when Sakumo was on break from missions or atrociously home-cooked meals that the Hatakes ate with gusto when the older man was only off for a night. As he convinced himself of Kakashi's happiness at home, he backed off and only joined the two for training once or twice every couple weeks.

The most recent spar had ended up being Kakashi and Sakumo against Minato, and they had been a formidable pair. He knew the older man wasn't fighting to his full potential; he was playing the distraction so his son could feel the real effects of the training. He'd ended up with a few kunai in his arm and, for some reason, thought Kushina would take some pity on him.

He sighed playfully at the young woman in front of him, who despite her yelling, had bandaged his arm quite thoroughly.

"I know I should let them be, Kushina-chan, but I just want to do everything I can to help my student."

"Yah, keep playing that 'I'm so cute to be worrying about my student' card, it'll get you nowhere in the future, yah know?" She had stopped yelling though, she couldn't resist the bright blue puppy eyes from the blond man. "No more getting injured off missions, though, ya hear?" She did her best to scold him again. He just grinned, jumped up from his chair, and gave her a light kiss on the cheek.

"Of course! I best be going now, Kakashi likes to be early for our morning training."

Sure enough, a still small silver-haired boy was waiting at the training grounds for his sensei to arrive.

"Hey Pipsqueak!" Minato shouted in greeting. "Should I just start telling you that training won't start until 11? Then maybe you'll show up at 10 instead of 9. I happen to like my sleep," he rambled a little, wanting to get a rise out of the small boy.

A corner of Kakashi's mouth flicked upwards at Minato's playfulness. He had grown taller since the last memory, finally resembling an average 5 year old.

"I'll be here at 9 every day, Sensei, no matter what time you tell me. I know all your tricks," there was laughter in his voice, bringing an easy sparkle to his eyes. Minato grinned, it was incredible how much expression Kakashi conveyed with less than half of his face showing.

"Well then, let's spar this morning, we haven't done that in a while. We do need to give your chakra a break while you keep growing into it."

"Ok," he said, a little reluctantly, "but you have to give me all your kunai. No flicker technique until I can beat you without it." He held out his hands expectantly, with a challenge in his eyes. Minato pretended to sigh in defeat, but really it made the fights more interesting when he didn't use his super speed. He was greatly looking forward to the day when he and Kakashi could spar with it. He guessed at another few years, then the boy would probably be jounin level and they could have some real fun. For now, fighting without it would be good practice for Minato if he ever lost his precious kunai on the battlefield.

The sun eventually worked its way to beating down at the sparring shinobi directly. They were both sweating and taking a water break to catch their breaths. It had been a productive morning, Kakashi had landed a number of good hits on the blond jounin that were sure to bruise quickly. Likewise, Minato had landed several on the young chuunin that he tried not to make too hard, since he knew how easily the silver-haired boy bruised. He glanced up at the blaring hot sun and then over to the sweaty child. He knew he probably didn't look or smell too great either.

"What do you say to a diving competition?" The young boy raised an eyebrow skeptically.

"That sounds like something Gai would suggest," he responded, nose wrinkling under his mask.

"Will you let me explain the rules before judging?" Minato asked, amused by how the 'rivalry' between his student and that weird Gai kid had sprung up. It was pretty pointless, since Kakashi won everything, but he had to admire the other kid's stamina. It would lead to an interesting friendship between the two to say the least.

"Fine," Kakashi sighed, he wouldn't argue with his sensei too much, especially not when it was hot and the offer was to cool off in the river. Minato started to explain as they walked over to the gently flowing river.

"Well, we're going to walk on top of the water, as I taught you a year ago, and then we'll use our water chakra to raise ourselves up a diving board. Once we climb to the top, we have to jump on it and dive in."

"But, I have lightening chakra and you have wind," he responded, confused.

"Do you remember the paper test I gave you when we first started training together?"

"Hai, my paper crinkled."

"Yes it did, but, it also was slightly more damp than a normal piece of the paper and a corner even crumpled off."

"Really?"

"Hai, most shinobi are able to use more than just one nature manipulation."

"Father uses lightening and water, does that mean I have those two as well?" The boy's excitement was growing. Minato chuckled.

"I believe you have a certain amount of earth natured chakra as well. Would you like to experiment?"

"Hai!" He ran onto the surface of the water as soon as they reached their new training area. "Show me what to do, Sensei!"

Minato chuckled and joined his student on the water. After several minutes, they both had towering waterfalls and they raced each other to climb to the top. Once reaching it, Kakashi dove in first, propelling himself as far forward as he could underwater. Minato followed once the boy had resurfaced. He had initially decided to let the boy win, but was surprised when his breath nearly ran out before getting there. He gasped for air a number of feet closer to the waterfall than Kakashi.

"You cheated!" He spluttered accusingly. The boy laughed, pulling himself out of the water to stand on its surface.

"You never said speed swimming was against the rules!"

"Speed swimming, huh?" Minato was a little confused, the same principles of speed running didn't apply to swimming too, did they?

"Yeah! It's easy! It's like speed running using your arms and legs at the same time!" He was proud that he could still teach his sensei something, even if it wasn't exactly important information. Minato shook his head, smiling, as he pulled himself out of the water behind Kakashi.

"Alright, alright. You win, fair and square," he sighed, again in mock defeat. "Do you want to try more water manipulation, learn some earth manipulation, or go back to sparring?" He asked.

"Actually, do you mind if I bring my summons out, Sensei? I promised Pakkun steak for dinner, but not unless he trains for a bit."

"Your summons?" Now Minato was really confused.

"My ninken pack. I have 8 dogs. Well, puppies really, Pakkun is 6 and he's the oldest." The boy clarified.

"I didn't know you had summons. How come you've never brought them up before?"

Kakashi shrugged, "I've got some secrets from you, Sensei, otherwise I'd never be able to enjoy that look on your face." Minato snorted loudly.

"Alright, Kashi-kun, I'd love to meet your pack." Kakashi grin was big enough to be seen through his mask. He bit down on his thumb and performed the hand seals to summon his pack.

8 young dogs appeared on the scene. All had blue vests with henohenomoheji on them, as well as Konoha forehead protectors. The incredibly small pug bounded towards Kakashi first.

"Hey Master, is it steak time?" The pug asked, voice low for such a small dog.

"No, it's training time. No steak until you train, remember?" He said, sounding like a child trying to command a younger sibling around. It was kind of cute, Minato had to admit. Though it was a little unsettling that a seven year old had 'control' over more dogs than he had years of age.

The training that went underway with dogs involved a lot of finding Minato. He clamped his chakra down until there was none left and hid himself anywhere in the village. Eventually, it was either Pakkun or Uhei, a red dog with bandaging around her neck and head, that managed to find him and Kakashi would be there seconds later.

The rest of the afternoon passed well with the two shinobi and the 8 ninken-in-training. Minato had to admit, he was impressed with them. Like Kakashi, they were well advanced for their ages. By early evening, Kakashi was ready to head home, with the promise of a steak dinner for his dogs that night. He waved to Minato cheerfully and the group bounded off back to the Hatake compound.


	5. Chapter 5

_"Pakkun was so cute!" Sakura exclaimed. Sasuke just snorted while Naruto was still laughing at the tiny pug and the tiny boy. _

_ "Mini-Kaka-sensei and his mini-ninken!" The blonde laughed delightfully. "Man, you were a cute kid, Kakashi-sensei! Why aren't you still like that now?"_

_ "Baka!" Sakura shouted, hitting him lightly on the head, "we're going to see that answer soon, I'm sure." _

_ Sasuke had turned away from his teammates to look at their sensei. _

_ "You were really close with your sensei; he really meant a lot to you." The Uchiha was making a statement, not questioning. "You meant a lot to him to. These memories are only going to get more difficult."_

_ "Hai," Kakashi sighed in resignation. He knew the ones that must be coming up soon were going to be hard for him to relive. He wasn't entirely sure how he was going to handle his students watching them. _

_ The four were dragged gently out of their conversation as a bustle of voices made themselves recognizable from the clearing scene._

"I can't believe he betrayed the village!"

"Who would have thought? He was such a hero to my son."

"Mine too. What will we do now that the legendary White Fang can't even hold his promises?"

There were hundreds of people lining the street of the village, many of whom were shouting at the tall, broad-shouldered man with untamable grey hair. His eyes were deep in shadows, despite his head still being held high and his back straight. Minato watched in silence for a few minutes before turning to his large, white-haired, red-striped-eyed companion.

"What happened, Jiraiya-sensei? Why is everyone mad at Sakumo-san?"

"He put his comrades' lives ahead of the mission. They all would have died, but it was also essential that Sakumo destroyed the information that the other village had." Jiraiya sounded solemn, a weary look in his eyes and deep-set confusion in his features. It was as though the man was torn between yelling at his fellow villagers or yelling with them.

"I would have done the same, standing up for my comrades!" Minato said, trying to convince his former sensei that he was right not be yelling.

"You don't understand, Minato-kun; that information will extend the war for at least a few more years. His comrades were willing to die to end the war now. As it happens, Sakumo just sacrificed who knows how many more lives since this war will continue."

Minato was about to argue with his sensei again when he finally understood what the man was saying. Sakumo's choice had either been to let his friends die now and hope that the war would end soon, or save his comrades and know that the war would last longer, but at least they would be reunited with their families for a bit longer too. Maybe they wouldn't die in the war, even though others surely would. Minato ran his tense fingers through his hair when something else occurred to him.

"How do you know all this? You've only been back in the village a couple days."

"I was on the mission with him. He saved my life." Jiraiya bowed his head at this, closing his eyes.

"And you're questioning his decision?! You ought to be grateful for your life, Sensei! You know how essential you are to this village as one of the Sannin!" Minato seriously considered swatting his teacher's arm.

"I would have died for this village if it meant a treacherous war would end!" Jiraiya's voice raised, louder than Minato had ever heard it, and his eyes flew open, blazing hard. The two stared fiercely at each other for a moment before Jiraiya slowly backed down. "But, we don't know anything for certain. So, the war might well have continued dragging on just the same. That's why I haven't joined the crowds yet. Others are not so willing to understand that. They need to be angry, right now, Sakumo is a convenient target." Jiraiya reached up and squeezed his temple, he could feel a strong headache coming on. Minato decided a slight change of subject was in order, he had missed his sensei and didn't want to lecture him away just yet.

"Kakashi is my student now, he passed the chuunin exams earlier this year. I was actually shocked, but his father seemed to expect it. He was rightfully proud and the three of us had a really delightful celebration. He's quite an amazing boy, you know, more than just some genius child." Minato's word gushed enthusiasm, which did make Jiraiya smile. His former student obviously loved his charge very deeply.

"You might want to keep an extra close eye on him, Minato. This incident doesn't bode well for a young child who's easier for cowards to kick around than a grown man." He couldn't help but let out that warning, he knew Minato tended to think the best of his fellow villagers. This was going to be a long, drawn-out incident though. It would probably last until the end of the war, at least. People would see the child as a target as well. Minato shuddered as those thoughts occurred to him as well.

"You're right. Well, I'm meeting him for training at the practice fields soon, so I'd better head out. He has a tendency to be early. See you around, Jiraiya-sensei!" He forced cheerfulness as he waved at his former sensei and disappeared into the throng of villagers. Jiraiya sighed, watching his former student leave, and decided this was the perfect time to go back to his research. He didn't need to see the repercussions of Sakumo's choice. He had no desire to see his friend fall, but he wasn't really man enough to provide any support when the whole village would soon turn their backs on the White Fang. Definitely research time for his new novel.

In the months (rush of memories) that followed, Minato noticed only a few small changes in his routines with his newly-appointed chuunin. First of all, the boy seemed to grow taller and thinner every day, but his energy never died. The bright, warm fire that used to burn in the charcoal eyes started to dim and was gradually replaced with hard, solemn pools of ink. Kakashi's ninken pack also showed up at the end of training more and more often while Kakashi got less and less easy to make smile. Minato also noted the changes in the villagers as they recognized how easy of a target the young boy was. While Kakashi had at least associated with children his own age before (thanks to working at the academy every so often), he now refused to even travel through the village. His 7th birthday went virtually uncelebrated as Minato couldn't convince the boy to join him for dinner after giving him his gift (a book that was meant to be humorous about how to train your new puppy). As Kakashi's demeanor continued to grow darker and more solemn, Minato couldn't ignore the changes any longer. So, after a particularly dreary day, Minato broached the subject as gently as he could.

"How are things at home, Kashi-kun?"

"Fine." The boy responded shortly.

"Would you like to join me and Kushina for dinner? We were planning on meeting at the new ramen stand so she could tell me about her mission."

"No, thank you. Father expects me home. He worries when I'm late."

"Your father hasn't been on any missions recently, has he?"

"He wants to be at home with me now. To protect the one he loves most." It wasn't a heartfelt response, it sounded like a recitation from a book. Minato frowned.

"Well, you're always welcome to join me for dinner, Kashi-kun. Your father is too. I could bring some dinner by for the three of us tomorrow evening if you like." He offered, he hadn't seen Sakumo at all for a few weeks now, the man probably needed some company that wasn't about to rip his head off.

"No!" Kakashi gasped in surprise, but recovered quickly, "that would be nice, Minato-sensei, but Father doesn't let company over anymore."

"Ah, well, why don't you tell him my offer anyway? I'm hardly just any company, I've been training his son for 2 years now!" He gave the small chuunin a soft smile and reached to ruffle his hair. Kakashi backed away from the contact.

"I'll see you tomorrow, Minato-sensei!" He said, scampering off and summoning Pakkun to join him on the run back to his house.

Minato sighed heavily, once again wishing that Jiraiya was around more often. He could use some advice.

The next couple weeks were more of the same. Kakashi made a point to seem in better moods around his sensei, though, in an attempt to convince him that things were going well at home. The very fact that Kakashi now faithfully summoned his ninken to walk him home every night told Minato differently. He didn't stop worrying about the child. When he got to the practice fields one morning and there wasn't a strand of silver hair in sight, he nearly went out of his mind with worry.

"Kakashi!" He shouted into the trees. "Kashi-kun!" He went over to the river. "KAKASHI!"

Finally, he had no other choice, and he set his path for the lonely Hatake compound.

When he arrived, he knocked on the door very lightly, not wanting to disturb them if they were having an important father-son moment. When it became apparent that no one was going to answer him, he slowly pushed the door open.

The house was dark, as if the lights hadn't been turned on at all that morning or even the night before. Minato felt a shiver deep in his bones, despite the fact that it wasn't cold at all. There were no sounds anywhere. Not of snoring or talking or walking or even beds creaking. He went silently to Kakashi's room and held his breath, not sure what he was praying for. He shut his eyes tight as he pushed open the door. Nothing. He opened his eyes. The bed was empty. Unslept in, by the look of it.

He searched the rest of the house with growing worry in his gut before deciding he had no other choice but to go to the master bedroom at the very far end of the house. As he approached it, he recognized the tangy smell of a large amount of blood. His stomach dropped and he ran, no longer attempting to be quiet.

"Kakashi! Sakumo-san!"

His breath died as soon as he opened the door to the master bedroom. If he hadn't been trained as a shinobi and used to seeing bodies on the battlefield, he would have passed out by the door. As it was, he went into recovery mode.

There was a huge amount of dried and drying blood on the floor and two bodies were covered in it. One was much larger, not even the slightest movement of breath came from him. The other had wrapped itself close to the larger body, was covered practically head to toe in blood, once silver hair turned a deep crimson.

"Kakashi!" Minato barely breathed out the name. Don't be dead. Don't be dead. Don't be dead. The mantra ran nonstop through Minato's mind as he appeared at the small boy's side. He saw a pulse, it was flickering in the boy's throat. Every so often his thin body would heave with a breath. Minato gave thanks to whatever god was out there and gathered the child into his arms, tears ready to stream down his face and threatening to cloud his vision.

The boy was unconscious, whether from shock or something else was unclear, but Minato made a quick list of what he had to do in his mind. First was to get the boy cleaned from his father's blood. He remembered the day that tiny infant was born and filled the bathtub with warm water, just like Tsunade had. Carefully, he peeled off the blood-stained clothing and threw it into a bag to be burned. There was no way it could, or even should, be washed out. He couldn't helped but be extremely distressed at how thin the boy was. He looked as if he hadn't eaten normally in weeks, as if stress had been chewing away at his skin. There were no bruises, but his normally pale skin was tinged all over with the dark gray that usually only appeared on old, old men. He bit back another stream of tears as he left Kakashi laying on his side on the floor in nothing but his underwear for a moment as he went to the boy's room to fetch clean clothes and a towel.

When he returned, he lifted the boy into the tub and, also a repeat of Tsunade, scrubbed every bit of blood away. He washed the shock of silver hair at least three times until it gleamed the bright silver of a new quarter. Only then, when even the boy's fingernails were clean of blood, did Minato take him out, dry him off, and dress him.

Kakashi had made no movements throughout this ordeal. As Minato laid the child on his bed though, he started to be aware that he had been moved. There was no more tang of blood all around him. No body growing colder next to him. The first movement he made was a full-body shiver. Minato saw it and quickly gathered the boy into his arms.

"It's ok Kashi-kun, I'm here. I will always be here. I promise," Minato whispered, trying to be soothing. The boy made no indication that he'd heard his sensei other than a strangled gasp that seemed to shake through his very core as he clung on to the warmth that was suddenly holding him. Kakashi's body continued to shake in silent sobs as Minato held him. He rubbed soothing circles on the boy's back, pressed his cheek right up next to the smaller one, and continued whispering gentle words while attempting to restrain his own tears.

Eventually, the boy calmed enough to lie back down on the bed. Minato started to move away, intending to go make some tea and warm some noodles to get food into Kakashi's system, but the grip on him tightened tenfold as soon as the intention of moving away was clear. Minato didn't even consider trying to break the child's grip. He lay down on the bed next to the boy, wrapped him firmly in blankets, and then clasped the whole bundle steadfastly to his chest, pressing a gentle kiss to the boy's forehead.

"I won't leave you Kashi-kun, I promise I'm here." He murmured, encouraging the child to fall asleep. Minato decided he wouldn't be leaving for a while, but something had to be done about Sakumo's body.

As Kakashi's breathing deepened and steadied, Minato bit his thumb and summoned a small toad to the bedside.

"Dachi, go to the Hokage and tell him to come directly to the Hatake compound, if he can. If he is otherwise occupied, inform him, and him alone, that Sakumo-san has committed suicide and that the body needs to be cleaned up before Kakashi wakes up again."

"Hai, Minato," the toad nodded solemnly.

"Thank you," Minato whispered back, and the toad disappeared. Only then did Minato allow himself to close his eyes, let his tears fall, and slowly fall asleep embracing his young apprentice.


	6. Chapter 6

_All four stood silently, lost in their own grief of what they had just witnessed. Kakashi had never wanted to see that day again, his own memories haunted him enough. Sasuke was deeply reminded of his experience in seeing his entire clan dead on the ground, blood everywhere from the slaughter, even though this memory had only been one person, it was somehow just as horrific. Naruto, in seeing the brightly colored hair rusted with blood had the fleeting impression of Jiraiya and was now reliving the moment he'd heard about the Sannin's death. Sakura felt deeply for all of them, grateful that she had never understood their pain and unendingly sorry that her teammates had endured this. Tears prickled at her eyes as she moved closer to try to touch each one of them gently, reminding them all that they were loved and their loved ones were happy with whatever happened beyond death. _

_ The scene changed slowly. Instead of focusing on one moment, like it had been doing, it brushed gently on several. Giving the impression of time passing in fleeting glimpses of interactions between the young boy and his sensei before settling on one that occurred a couple years later. _

Minato sighed as he made to leave his apartment building. It was going to be a miserable day, he might as well admit it to himself. A bit over 2 years had gone by since Sakumo's suicide, the war was still going strong, and today was the day Minato would finally have a complete genin team. Well, of a sort, since Kakashi was technically chuunin. For a long time, Kakashi had shut him out completely; it had only been the past few months that the boy started smiling or teasing him again. Minato had a very strong feeling that would disappear again as two new genins joined them.

He would have otherwise been looking forward to meeting his new students, but now, it was just a bit depressing, especially when he knew the hard wall of sarcasm his young apprentice would build up. That boy really knew too much for his own good; his brain way too far developed for any peace of mind.

As Minato leapt over the rooftops, he checked in quickly at Kakashi's apartment, the boy had moved out of the Hatake compound about 6 months ago and his new place was conveniently located between Minato's and the training grounds. Minato peeked into the window and was unsurprised to find it already empty, dishes from breakfast washed and drying, bed already made from sleeping the night before. He smiled a small, sad smile as he thought about the personality the boy would develop once he got over his depression, a mild OCD would probably be prevalent.

Within minutes, he reached the training grounds half an hour early, just as planned. He landed deftly on the ground and immediately turned his gaze to the trees. He knew Kakashi was here, probably practicing masking his chakra just to mess with his sensei. Minato carefully stretched out his own chakra, searching for a few minutes before finally sensing a light crackle in the breeze to his left. He carefully did not turn his gaze there, instead, he jumped right, disappearing into the trees before throwing his kunai right next to where he had sensed the boy. He grinned when the boy didn't seem to move.

"Got 'cha, Pipsqueak!" He'd used his flicker technique to land just centimeters away from Kakashi. The silver-haired boy just twitched his nose and narrowed his eyebrows lightly.

"I'm going to steal those kunai again, Sensei," he muttered, not quite darkly. It made Minato smile, his apprentice was in a good mood today.

"Only when you can catch me, Kashi-kun," he responded, mirroring the boy's tone. "Come on down from the trees. We'll be meeting the two genin today. We'll finally have a full team to go on missions!" He pressed exuberance into his voice, hopeful that the young boy would be accepting of the new graduates.

Kakashi sighed, but followed Minato to the ground.

"Who are they? You keep refusing to tell me their names, but I'm sure I know them. I did spend a lot of time helping at the academy," the boy asked, honestly curious about who his new teammates would be. He secretly hoped one of them would be Asuma, the Sandaime's son. The two had been decent friends when they were very young and Asuma had been one of the few to never mention Kakashi's father to him after the incident. Minato could practically read this on the boy's face, which is precisely why he didn't want to disappoint him so early on.

"Well," Minato started, Kakashi perked up eagerly. "I suppose the time has come," Minato paused again, just to make the young boy react. He did, drawing his eyebrows together in mild frustration and shooting a playful glaring stare toward his sensei. Minato laughed and gave in. "Their names are Uchiha Obito and Nohara Rin."

"Not Obito!" Kakashi groaned loudly. "He's an idiot and far too excitable and he'll be enthusiastic and need way too much help and take…" the boy trailed off and paced in circles, genuinely ranting more than Minato had ever seen him do before.

"Kashi-kun?" He asked dumbly, reaching out a hand to shake the boy's shoulder. He tried to start several sentences in his mind before realizing he actually had no idea what to say. He shook his head slightly. "Well, what about Rin then?"

Kakashi thought for a moment, turning that question over in his mind, getting away from Obito.

"Rin's alright, I guess. She's going to be a medic-nin, that'll be useful," he stopped for a moment, face darkening. "Especially since _Obito_ is bound to get hurt all the time."

"Kakashi!" Minato exclaimed, exasperated. He often forgot that Kakashi was barely 10 years old, but it was petty comments like this that grated on his nerves. He'd complained to Jiraiya about it on the rare occasions Kakashi did dole them out and each time the man had just laughed, responding with 'kids will be kids' or something akin to that.

The blond man and the silver haired boy stared hard at each other for several minutes, a nonverbal argument passing heatedly between them. Minato was trying to hold in his temper to avoid yelling at the boy while he knew Kakashi was just being inordinately stubborn and would ultimately win this contest. Even Gai knew better than to challenge Kakashi to staring contests.

"Please just try to be nice to him," Minato sighed, loosening his grip on the boy's shoulders (which had tightened noticeably during their 'fight'). Kakashi's glare stayed hard for a while longer, until Minato looked away and finally released his hold altogether in temporary defeat, if he had to, he would continue this argument later.

"Fine. Only as long as he doesn't do or say anything stupid," Kakashi grumbled, adding on more quietly "which he undoubtedly _will_." Minato heard, his blue eyes flashed icy hard and pointed at his apprentice.

"_What_ was that?" His voice rising again. Apparently later was now.

"Nothing!" Kakashi spat back at him quickly, unable to stop himself from crossing his arms. He had seen his sensei's anger through second-hand experience. It had never been truly directed at him before. Outwardly, presumptuous comments from the boy were a trigger. Kakashi made note of that and stored the information to the back of his mind.

Minato fully sensed the attitude wafting off Kakashi, despite the boy's quick denial of saying something else degrading about his new teammate. He geared himself up for a yelling match with the small silver haired chuunin. He _knew_ this day was going to be a nightmare. He tried not to yell at Kakashi as much as his undefinable patience could handle, but he would NOT tolerate his protégé putting down his teammates. Apparently, this moment was called for, no matter what the boy's past trauma was.

"You WILL be considerate to your new teammates! I WILL NOT allow you to be a part of my team if you can't respect that is what we are! You WILL NOT degrade your teammates in ANY form and you WILL NOT put them down for being average shinobi! Am I Clear?" Minato's eyes were hard as icicles, his eyebrows drawn together, and a light angry flush apparent high in his cheeks, even his crazy blond hair seemed to crackle with emotion. Kakashi's eyes widened ever so slightly at seeing his teacher like this, but he couldn't make himself back down. Somewhere, somehow, he _wanted_ to fight with his sensei, his blood was pumping furiously with little physical exertion and it made him _feel_ something. He drew in a breath, readying himself to respond to his sensei when they both felt a distinctly new chakra presence quickly approaching them.

"Hello?" A young girl jumped into the clearing that she was almost certain she'd heard a particularly loud voice coming from a minute ago. The girl had short brown hair and thick purple stripes down her cheeks. Minato relaxed his position from the bushes he'd jumped into. He took a couple deep, calming breaths and told himself he wouldn't yell at Kakashi in front of his new teammates. This girl had to be Rin. Now was as good a time as any to make his first impression on her. He did one more deep breath, thought of fish swimming in a calm river, and jumped from the bushes with a smile on his face and a hand raised in greeting.

"Yo," Minato said, smiling lightly. "You must be one of my new gennin. My name is Minato-sensei."

The girl looked more concerned about the fact that her new sensei had just jumped out of a bush than that he had managed to catch her off guard.

"Hello, Sensei," she began cautiously. "My name is Rin, and I see I'm a little early?" Her voice lilted questioningly and she glanced pointedly at the bush.

"Hehe," Minato shrugged, ducking his head, and tried to brush off the awkwardness. "Your chuunin teammate wanted to practice chakra masking and seeking masked chakra." The lie came easily enough and they had been doing as much earlier.

"Ah! That's right, Kakashi-kun is on our team!" She smiled, giggled, blushed a little, and then finally just settled on an excited expression. Minato grinned back at her, she was quite adorable. He could also feel the waves of annoyance emanate from Kakashi, who seemed to be half-masking his chakra behind another tree.

"Kakashi!" He called as gently as he could for the boy. They would hopefully not be continuing their argument later, but for right now he knew they were both capable of putting on an act for the gennin. Kakashi seemed to get the subliminal message.

"Hai, Minato-sensei," came the boy's low mutter as he approached the clearing.

"Right," said Minato, feeling his nerves press on his insides. He checked his watch, it was several minutes passed their original meeting time. "It seems we are still waiting on one."

"I'm sure he'll be here any minute!" Rin said just a little too enthusiastically. She was ready to hit and yell at Obito for being late, upsetting their new sensei and Kakashi-kun.

Minato couldn't help feeling a little annoyed at the late child. He just wanted to get this first day, well probably the first month would all be pretty bad based on Kakashi's initial reaction, over with so that he could go home, read Jiraiya's new novel, maybe meet up with Kushina for dinner later, and if not, he could spar with his apprentice for a while or try to give the kid some cooking lessons. Oh wait, he was still pissed at the kid for acting like a bratty child. Ugh, Minato internally sighed, when did his life have to get so difficult?

He put a smile on his and carefully schooled his features into gentle excitement. So, the day had started off badly, but Kakashi wasn't the ruler of Minato's moods. He could still be excited that he was finally training a whole team. They could go on missions together and the four of them (thanks to Minato and Kakashi being so advanced) would make it through this war to spread the Will of Fire to the rest of this young graduate class. This war was a good learning experience for all of them; it had to end soon.


	7. Chapter 7

A/N: So, I'm so sorry it's been a loooooooong time since an update on this fic, but I hit a block after chapter 6 and couldn't figure out what scenarios to do for the young Team Minato to embark on. Eventually, I just figured I'd write the next section and leave the missing pieces up to you guys. Leave a comment in the review section with an idea for young Kakashi, Obito, Rin, and Minato to go on and I'll try my best to write it out.

Until then, this is the Obito dies section, so if you want to wait before reading it for me to get ideas for the missing parts, skip it. Otherwise, I just wanted to start writing about Kakashi's healing process more than his cold, rule-abiding self.

Hope you enjoy! Please comment with ideas!

_OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO_

_"So this is the Third Shinobi War?" Naruto asked, as gently as he could seeing the pain on his sensei's face. _

_ "Hai," Kakashi murmured._

_ "So much death," Sakura shuddered. "And no trustworthy alliances at all."_

_ Sasuke grimaced as he relived all the death and destruction he'd caused in his lifetime. All that he'd seen. This drawn out war hit him hard in his heart and gut._

_ The travelers watched mesmerized as scenes of horrible battles flowed before them, so much blood and so much terror. Kakashi winced horribly as his first jounin mission turned up around them. The mission at Kanabi Bridge. Obito's death. He could only imagine how the next scene would go._

"Alright, Kakashi, you are the jounin captain! I must part for the Bridge now, you three will take the back way around to take out any possible threats to me. I have complete faith in your ability to complete this mission." Minato stated this boldly, careful to look each of his chuunin and the jounin in the eyes. He was worried as he bounded away from them. Of course he was, he would be a fool and a horrible sensei if he weren't. But even he would never have suspected the events that did happen.

He breathed a sigh of relief as he finished off the Stone nin at Kannabi Bridge and was about to relax his stance when he sensed his flicker technique kunai being thrown. Within milliseconds, he was with a mostly unconscious Kakashi and a terrified, tear-filled Rin.

"What happened?" He murmured as he quickly moved to take care of Kakashi. "Where's Obito?"

"H-h-he…" Rin started, but a wave of sobs overtook her and she was completely unable to continue. Minato laid Kakashi gently on the ground and hurried to enfold her in his arms.

"It's ok, Rin." His heart clenched painfully as she shook her head and he noticed that the blood from huge gash across Kakashi's left eye wasn't the only thing making the area look red. He continued rubbing Rin's back as he knelt to inspect the eye closer.

And then he couldn't breathe. That was a sharingan. In place of Kakashi's eye. A two tomei, newly awakened sharingan. Impossible. That meant… Obito.

Rin collapsed, sobbing nearly hysterically now as Minato shakily closed Kakashi's left eyelid over Obito's eye. He had to confirm it though, he couldn't leave any chance that Obito could still be saved. Minato waited a few minutes for Rin to gather herself again.

"Where is Obito?" He asked her, as softly and gently as he could. She lifted her hand and pointed toward the still collapsing cavern. He considered his abilities and his options briefly. "Is there any chance of getting him?"

"His….his whole right half was crushed." She managed to whisper. "We couldn't budge the rock crushing him." Minato grasped her hand and Kakashi's limp form before teleporting them back into safe Fire Country territory. Once they were safe, he settled Kakashi in his sleeping bag before returning his attention to Rin.

"Can you try telling me what happened?" He asked, giving her his canteen of water and inviting her to lean up against him. She took a gulp of water and nodded.

"We didn't sense the Stone nin until too late. Kakashi fought them, but they were too much for him alone and killing him wasn't their purpose. They got a hold of me. Put me into a genjutsu and waited for the team captain to come rescue me instead of proceeding to Kannabi Bridge." She stopped here to glance up at the stars for a bit of strength before continuing. "I was woken from the genjutsu to Kakashi and Obito coming to rescue me. Kakashi wouldn't have come on his own, something must have happened between him and Obito," she shook her head slightly, but went on. "They had gotten into a fight with the Stone nin before finding me and Kakashi's eye was all bandaged up. The Stone nin obviously weren't happy with them finding or waking me, so they caused the cave to fall in on itself. We ran, Kakashi got hit, Obito threw him out of the way of a much larger rock, which is the one that ended up crushing him," she stopped again. A much briefer pause this time as she seemed to just want to finish the story now. "The falling rocks stopped for a few minutes after that one. Obito knew he wouldn't make it, even as Kakashi tried with all his might to get the rock off. So, Obito gifted Kakashi his newly awakened sharingan to replace Kakashi's lost left eye. I guess Kakashi got the injury from protecting Obito and Kakashi promised he would use the eye to protect me. Which he did. I performed the procedure to transplant the sharingan and then Kakashi killed the Stone nin with his chidori. We escaped the cave just as it started collapsing again."

Minato didn't have any words, he just wrapped his arms around Rin again to hold her until she decided to walk it off a bit. She went to reflect on the stars as Minato turned his attention to Kakashi, who was now growing fitful in his sleep. He knelt gently on the ground and began to rub soothing circles on the boy's back. He glanced at Rin, who was still staring up at the sky, before turning back to Kakashi and placing a gentle kiss on the boy's raw cut.

"I'm proud, Kashi-kun, for you going back for Rin. That was the right thing to do." He whispered into silver hair. He let tears ghost down his cheeks, losing a young, hopeful, spirited ninja like Obito was a painful loss. As Minato thought about the situations he'd encountered and the option Kakashi must have been faced with, he realized one more thing. "It seems I was destined to lose one of you this mission." He murmured, more to himself than the sleeping 12 year-old.

He would have lost Rin if the boys hadn't gone after her, Obito if Rin was lost, and Kakashi's spirit and soul would be completely hopeless for reform. He'd always wanted Kakashi to somehow adopt Obito's energy and hope, but at what cost? He sighed lightly at his musings. They were ninja, comrades fell for the sake of the village or other comrades often enough. This was just Rin and Kakashi's first. Well, not exactly Kakashi's first, Minato amended in his mind.

Arriving back at Konoha was with broken hearts for all of Team Minato. The Battle at Kannabi Bridge was over, but there was one young name to add to the Memorial Stone. The three shinobi hadn't talked much as they'd traveled back to their village, Kakashi was taken immediately to the hospital, Minato walked Rin to her parents' home, and he went to address the Uchiha compound.

His first stop at the Uchiha compound was to speak privately with Obito's parents and then he needed to appeal to the entire clan about Obito's sharingan.

"WHAT happened?" exclaimed an outraged clan official.

"Obito gifted Kakashi his sharigan before his death. Kakashi had lost his left eye in another battle to save Obito's life, so he gave up his sharingan to Kakashi." Minato sighed, this was the last thing he wanted to be doing after such a stressful mission. All he wanted was Kushina's cooking, a hot bath, and a long sleep, but the sharingan issue needed to be addressed before Kakashi left the hospital.

"What exactly is the boy going to _do_ with a sharingan?" another official questioned, a sarcastic woman.

"He will improve himself as a shinobi to better protect our village. He will use it to honor Obito's memory and way of life every day for the rest of his own." Minato said in his most calming, trust-inducing voice.

There was a crowd of voices talking as the clan officials, as well as Obito's family, took part in the discussion. Finally Uchiha Fugaku, the official head of the clan, spoke.

"This is Hatake Sakumo's genius son, correct?" He asked, looking Minato down straight in the eye.

"Hai, Hatake Kakashi." Minato confirmed.

"We will allow him a grace period of one month to either prove himself worthy or unsatisfactory to carry our trademark. If we deem him worthy, we will allow him to keep the eye and if he does not meet our satisfaction, we will request he have the eye removed. If he refuses, we will have a problem." Fugaku declared. The rest of the Uchihas considered this and nodded their consent.

Minato deflated, this was good news. What Kakashi needed was time and this agreement would allow for that as well as the guarantee of no direct judgment or bullying. The Uchihas would most definitely be watching, but, out of respect for Obito and his family, they would not outright force him to fail.


	8. Chapter 8

_"That's how you got the sharingan?" Sasuke murmured in wonder. "It was a gift from the kid you bullied." He sighed, shaking his head lightly. "How people change," he added under his breath. _

_ "Oi, baka! That was very brave of both of them!" Naruto shouted, bonking Sasuke on the head with his fist. "People _do_ change!" _

_ Sakura grimaced at her teammates' argument and instead turned her attention to their sensei. Kakashi had crouched down on the ground and his hands were working hard to try to pull his hair out. Hesitantly, Sakura reached out to touch his shoulder. He winced at the initial contact, but his hands relaxed their tension a little. _

_ "Tobi," Kakashi started, taking in a deep breath. "Tobi, the man working with Madara, was Obito. Apparently Madara saved him and he changed. For the worse." _

_ Naruto and Sakura looked dumbfounded, Sasuke's mouth parted in brief surprise but then he nodded lightly. _

_ "That's how your Mangekyo and his were connected." Sasuke surmised. _

_ "Hai," Kakashi murmured. "Our eyes were the same." _

_ There was so much Naruto wanted to say, Sakura wanted to add, and Sasuke wanted explained, but the scene was already changing in front of them again. They recognized Kakashi on his way to the Uchiha compound and decided this next memory was important to their understanding. _

Minato followed through the trees as Kakashi pushed through the gates of the Uchiha compound. This was far from the boy's first time in the compound, but it was definitely the most meaningful. His month-long grace period was up and a meeting had been requested by the heads of the clan. Kakashi had insisted on going alone, but Minato really had no choice other than to follow. He had to watch out for his young apprentice, he was family to Minato, and had been for years.

"Hatake Kakashi," Uchiha Fugaku addressed the young silver haired teen as he pushed open the doors to the meeting room.

"Hai, Uchiha-san," Kakashi confirmed clearly, bowing politely to acknowledge his superior, before bowing in respect to the rest of the room.

"We have called you here to discuss Uchiha Obito's sharingan," Fugaku continued. "We have been watching your training and your behavior thoroughly during these last weeks; we have reached a decision regarding the sharingan. Is there anything you would like to say to our council?"

"Yes, if I may, Uchiha-san, I would like to appeal to the council in favor of my keeping Obito's eye. I made a promise to him before he died that I would always protect our teammate, Rin. I will be able to accomplish that if I have his eye watching out for her too. The sharingan is an extremely valuable asset to any shinobi who possesses one and I would like to use that asset to Konoha's fullest advantage," he paused for a moment to observe the council's reactions before continuing. "I have been able to perfect a jutsu I created thanks to Obito's eye. My chidori is one of the most powerful and deadly jutsu in existence, I can wield it efficiently, without allowing harm to come to myself, with the use of the sharingan. Although my body is not accustomed to the chakra necessities of the sharingan, I am superb at chakra control and am fully capable of learning how to channel it through the sharingan or direct it completely away from the eye. My current solution is keeping Obito's sharingan covered at all times when it is not in use."

"We Uchiha are well-known for being genius shinobi. You attained that title without a sharingan and that impresses us. As I have stated, we have watched your training very thoroughly and we see your genius as truth. We have also seen you often paying respects to our fallen clan member, the namesake of the sharingan in question. All of our deliberations have led to only one viable pathway."

The room quieted, Kakashi held his breath while Minato did the same on the rooftop.

"You may keep the sharingan," Fugaku stated, Kakashi's breath whooshed out as he opened his mouth to state his gratitude. Fugaku held up a hand. "However, even when you are able to control its chakra, you must keep it covered. There are those among our clan who do not agree with this decision and those in the village who will also view it as wrong. We also have agreed that the origin of your sharingan remain unknown to those not present in this room. We will not encourage it to be commonplace for our Uchiha to begin gifting their eyes to those who are not generally considered worthy. You may honor Obito's memory, but not in such a way that deliberately associates his name with that eye. We must protect our legacy."

Kakashi bowed deeply and accepted the terms.

"One last thing, before you leave," Fugaku added this last statement almost haphazardly, "We will not protect you as our own, and that sharingan will die with you. No matter what the circumstances."

"So?" Rin asked nervously as Kakashi and Minato approached the training grounds. Minato sighed as Kakashi fiddled with the eyepatch/bandaging over his still healing eye.

"I keep Oibto's sharingan," Kakashi said.

"Hurray!" Rin jumped for him.

"BUT, we can't talk about him and I can't ever show it around the village." Kakashi added grumbling. "How am I supposed to honor him if I can't ever talk about him?" He questioned up to Minato.

"We'll all figure out small gestures we can do. First though, we need a better solution for you than that eyepatch, it looks gruesome," Minato shuddered. Rin grimaced a little and Kakashi just rolled his visible eye.

"Fine," the silver-haired nin sighed dramatically. "What do you suggest?"

"I think just a little style change would be the way to go," Minato said, untying his forehead protector.

"Huh?"

Rin said nothing, but raised her eyebrow.

Minato removed the eyepatch and adjusted the fabric of his forehead protector before tying it at a defined slant across Kakashi's head so that it lined up diagonally with the boy's mask, leaving only his right eye uncovered.

Rin giggled at the change, then moved forward to add her touch. She pulled the small chunck of hair that Kakashi usually managed to flatten between his eyes and pushed it up under the forehead protector.

"That's better," she said. Minato stepped back and pretended to contemplate the changes seriously before nodding in intelligent agreement. Kakashi just gave a slightly aggravated sigh.

"Can we get back to training now?"

"Hai, hai," Minato surrendered.

The next morning Minato kissed Kushina as he left half an hour early, as usual. He glanced in to Kakashi's apartment, unsurprised to find the boy gone, bed made, dishes washed. Minato expected to see him at the training field, using the sharingan or practicing his chidori. When he arrived at the training grounds, however, he couldn't find the silver-haired jounin at all.

"Kakashi?" He called questioningly into the empty space. He scratched his head, glanced up in a few trees. No trace at all of the boy. Odd. He could have worried himself about it, but this wasn't at all the same situation as when Sakumo had committed suicide. So, Minato contented himself with meditating next to a tree trunk until Rin approached.

"Where's Kakashi-kun?" She asked, sitting next to Minato. Minato sighed and uncrossed his legs.

"What time is it?"

"Almost 9 o'clock, but he's always here before me."

"Yeah, he's usually here before me too," Minato sighed. "Should we go look for him or give him some time to himself?"

"Maybe he had errands to run, he was putting them off while he knew the Uchiha were watching him." Rin wondered aloud.

"That's possible," agreed Minato, still confused by the young shinobi's lateness. Lateness had always been a pet peeve of that boy. "Let's give him an hour and then go search."

Rin nodded in agreement. "What should I practice then, Minato-sensei?" She asked.

"Well, how about you and I spar?" He asked. "You usually train in medicine, let's do some hands-on hard-care ninja practice." Rin tilted her head questioningly.

"You always spar with Kakashi, I don't think I could keep up with you," she replied cautiously.

"I used to spar with Kakashi when he was a genin. We had different rules though, he would always take away my flicker-technique kunai. And I couldn't do rasengan then either. So, take away those two things and do you want to try?" Minato asked, rubbing the back of his neck, looking at the sky as he spoke. Rin hesitated, but eventually accepted.

The two sparred for an hour, even with his handicaps and going easy on her, Rin had still only managed three direct hits. She was exhausted. Kakashi still hadn't showed up.

"You were great! We'll have to do this more often!" Minato cheered, slapping her fondly on her back as she leaned over her knees to pant. "Well, let's use chakra sensing to find Kakashi now, it's been over an hour and I'm starting to worry." Minato continued, sobering up from teasing Rin.

"Hai," she panted. "Just give me a minute, Sensei, and some water."

The two jumped quietly through the trees, out of the training grounds, over the rooftops of the village, around the Uchiha compound, and finally to the memorial stone, where they spotted the silver head of hair. Minato saw him first and held his fist out, telling Rin to slow down. They approached him slowly, not wanting to unintentionally scare him into thinking they were enemy nin. As they got closer, Minato realized that he was steaming very lightly, he looked at Rin and her puckered brows told him she noticed it too. He looked back and realized what it was.

"The dew is evaporating off of him," he whispered into her ear. "He's been here since before dawn." Rin nodded.

"Kakashi-kun?" She called softly to him. He shifted his stance ever so slightly, which she and Minato took as a signal that he'd heard them.

"You're never late Kashi, is everything alright?" Minato asked, bumping Kakashi's shoulder lightly with his arm.

"Just," he started hoarsely, then coughed to clear his throat before starting again. "Just wondering how I could best honor Obito. So, thinking really. I came really early, so I could be on time for training, but then it hit me. Why?"

"Why what?" Minato asked.

"Why be on time for training? Why shouldn't I stay here with Obito and show him he's worth my time. I always yelled at him for being late, I've _always_ been early. So now he knows how much he means to me. I'm late for him." Kakashi said all this in short, matter of fact sentences. Rin giggled.

"Obito once said he'd pay good money to see you show up late for something. I think he'd appreciate it," she squeezed Kakashi's hand in a friendly gesture. Minato just smiled.

"Let's all stay here for a while, I have things to discuss with you guys about our team, then maybe we'll have a picnic lunch with Obito today," Minato suggested. His students nodded and all sat in a circle, including the memorial stone. Minato addressed the two shinobi, as well as the stone, as he told them how Gai would be temporarily be joining their team for their next few missions. Kakashi grumbled, but it wasn't nearly as heartfelt as his complaining had been before Kannabi Bridge.


End file.
